Carbon
dioxide levels now at the highest in 6 lakh
years, say scientists
MONTREAL (CANADA): More than
180 nations on Tuesday began grappling with
gloomy prospects of increased pollution and
global warming at the first meeting on the United
Nations Kyoto Protocol, as a political storm
unfolded in host nation Canada. Launched on
Monday, the 12 day gathering of the U.N. Frame
work Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is
expected to draw between 8, 000 and 10, 000
participants from Governments, business, science
and green groups.
Its challenge will be to frame
the first steps for crafting pledges on greenhouse
gas pollution after the present "commitment
period" of the Kyoto Protocol runs out
in 2012. "People who have sent their delegates
here want real progress," said Canadian
Environment Minister Stephane Dion. "That's
why here in Montreal, we have get results."
Scientists
warning: Meanwhile, Lord May,
the president of Britain's leading scientific
body, the Royal Society, warned that global
warming was an apocalyptic peril whose effects
are already visible.
"The impacts of global
warming are many and serious," Lord May
said in an advance copy of his speech released
on Monday, adding that the environmental problems
wrought by greenhouse gases "invite comparison
with weapons of mass destruction." The
environmental groups Greenpeace and Friends
of the Earth warned that the window of opportunity
was closing fast.
Extreme
weather: "Extreme weather
events, drought and rising sea levels threaten
the lives and livelihoods of millions of people
around the world. Negotiators must remember
this as they enter these talks," said Catherine
Pearce of Friends of the Earth International.
Greenpeace campaigner Steve Sawyer said the
meetings urgently had to give a sign that binding
caps would remain post-2012, otherwise the world's
fledging market in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
could be wrecked.
U.N. representative Richard
Kinley urged industrialised nations to reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing
to global warming. But experts pointed out that
developing countries such as China and India
will now have to contribute to anti-pollution
controls. The Montreal meeting is the first
by the convention since the Kyoto Protocol,
signed by 156 countries took effect in February.
The pact commits industrialised
nations to making specific cuts in carbon dioxide
and five other greenhouse gases that trap solar
heat, thus warming the planet's surface and
disrupting its delicate climate system. But
the present commitment period does not include
the planet's worst polluter, the United States,
which walked away from the protocol in 2001
because of the high cost of meeting its Kyoto
targets. No does it include fast-growing developing
countries, such as China and India, in its pledge
on target reductions.
A
small step: The present Kyoto
period is only just a tinny first step towards
tackling greenhouse gases that have increased
dramatically in recent decades as fossil fuels
are burned to power economic growth. Atmospheric
CO2 levels are now at the highest in 650, 000
years, scientists say, and 2005 is likely to
go into history books as the warmest year on
record. The present Kyoto period is only just
a tinny first step towards tackling greenhouse
gases that have increased dramatically in recent
decades as fossil fuels are burned to power
economic growth. Atmospheric CO2 levels are
now at the highest in 650, 000 years, scientists
say, and 2005 is likely to go into history books
as the warmest year on record.
Canada is hosting the meeting
amid domestic political upheaval after Prime
Minister Paul Martin's embattled minority Government
was ousted late on Monday by a 171-133 no-confidence
vote in Parliament after months of acrimonious
corruption allegations.
The motion came after Mr. Martin
rejected an Opposition ultimate to promise to
dissolve Parliament in January.
